A new study shows that teenagers who eat breakfast regularly eat a healthier diet and are more physically active throughout their adolescence than those who skip breakfast. Years later, they also gained less weight and had a lower body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight in relation to height used to measure obesity."
Adolescents may think that skipping breakfast is a good way to save on calories. Eating a healthy breakfast may help adolescents avoid overeating later in the day and disrupt unhealthy eating patterns," says a researcher from the University of Minnesota.
In a study, researchers analysed the dietary and weight patterns of a group of 2,216 adolescents over a five-year period. Teens who ate breakfast regularly had a lower percentage of total calories from saturated fat and ate more fibre and carbohydrates than those who skipped breakfast. In addition, regular breakfast eaters seemed more physically active than breakfast skippers. Over time, teens who regularly ate breakfast tended to gain less weight and had a lower body mass index than breakfast skippers.
Meanwhile, a related study found that reducing television and computer time by 50% in children led to less sedentary behaviour and a lower BMI compared with children with unrestricted TV and computer time.
Source: WebMD
Are iPods a danger to hearing?
iPods and other MP3 players are as common as the clothes you wear, and just as stylish. But if you crank up an iPod to more than 60 per cent of its maximum volume, and listen to music for more than an hour, you are asking for trouble. Medically speaking, you are asking for acoustic trauma. And, it does not matter if the music you play is classical, rock or heavy metal.
Researchers find that young people who break the so-called 60per cent/60 minute rule in listening to iPods are at risk of suffering hearing loss similar to that of aging adults. Other experts warn that people today are losing their hearing at much younger ages than they did just a generation ago.
Why is iPod abuse dangerous? With ear bud headphones placed directly in the ear canal and high-volume music played over a prolonged period of time, it's like working in a loud factory all day, being a maintenance person under a jet airplane or using a jackhammer on a construction site. Employees on all of these jobs would develop noise-induced hearing loss if they were not required to wear protective earplugs or ear muffs.
Similarly, iPods can cause temporary and permanent hearing damage. A loud iPod can cause a ruptured eardrum and over time, may cause permanent damage to the tiny hairs in the inner ear. If these tiny hairs are damaged, they cannot effectively transmit sounds to the auditory nerves that connect to the brain. If this happens, hearing loss becomes permanent.
Source: Tweens & Teens
Eating breakfast may beat teen obesity
